Limited Access
by Daimeryan Rei
Summary: In a gritty, technology over-developed future, Heero Yuy,


Limited Access

by Daimeryan Rei

Pairings: establishing Heero Duo. Milliardo Peacecraft/Zechs Lucrezia Noin. Treize Khushrenada Lady Une.

Genre : AU, science fiction.

Warnings: foul language (mainly on Duo's part), shounen ai.

Summary: AC 317, Second Earth. The future is dark and somewhat gritty. Technology has advanced significantly, but provides a widening gap between the poor and the rich. Artificial Intelligence has been developed by five scientists to great heights, thanks to the support and funding of philanthropist Treize Khushrenada. Heero Yuy, one of the most far developed and the epitome of AI science, is well aware of his cyborg nature. He has no reason to question his orders- until he meets someone who probably is the illusive number 02, once lost in the fine-tuning process… and from that moment on, his life takes a whole new turn.

Author's note: plotbunny for this fic adopted from KCgal.

Feedbak is greatly appreciated.

Key:

- scene change

* * *

"Next!" 

Heero Yuy took a step forward and closed the line. He ignored the grumbling and moaning of the rest of the passengers, picking up their luggage and moving one step forward. Women, men and children were crowding the Admittance Desk in the Space Port of colony X-L247539820, proud member of the Second United Earth Sphere Alliance, as the numerous posters plastered all over the walls clearly stated.

"Why can't they hurry up?" A big woman fanned herself some fresh air with a rolled up magazine and huffed. "Stupid slow colonists, taking their time forever."

Heero didn't give the rude woman a second thought. She was from Second Earth, no doubt about it. Her pristine clothing, her well-fed appearance and her impatient, disdainful behavior classified her immediately as a class 3 citizen, probably class 2. This woman had more than likely never known one day of work, let alone a few hours of waiting. Unfortunately for her, colony X-L247539820 treated every freshly arrived passenger the same- slow.

Heero focused his attention again on the obvious lack of discipline and efficiency in the admittance system. There were fifteen desks and only two of them were open; too little for the afternoon crowd. This Admittance Desk was the portal of the L2 colony cluster and maintained a complicated system of sectors, who could only be visited at certain hours, at a certain price. Heero checked every minute if he'd still had the bribe money tucked in with his admittance pass. He entertained himself with calculating the percentage of improved efficiency if he was to reorganize the admission process. It would take a while before it was his turn and luckily for him, he wouldn't feel sore feet.

"Next!"

"Move it!" The man behind him slapped him impatiently on the back, and uttered a surprised cry. Heero slowly turned around, to look him right in the face. The man cradled his injured hand to his chest and looked at him in terror.

"Damned cyborgs..." His voice drifted away.

"We prefer the term 'artificial humans', sir." Heero corrected the man. "My system tells me there's nothing wrong with your hand, only a slight bruise. Just be careful next time."

"My system tells me…" The man repeated his words mockingly, but his slim wife tugged at his sleeve.

"Let it go, Art. Com'on, we'll go stand in the other line, over there."

"You don't have to leave, ma'am. Standing in that line will only increase your waiting time with 15." The woman glared at him, but didn't deign him with an answer. Heero saw the two leave to stand rather miffed in the other line, not knowing what to feel. He registered some shocked expressions, people mumbling and children pointing. One other family pulled out of the line too, but the rest of the passengers stubbornly kept standing, reluctant to give up their position.

To observe, to register, to process, and to analyze. Those were the things he did best, those were the things he was designed for. Heero Yuy, model 01. He ignored the restless people, who didn't know how to react. Knowing that artificial intelligence existed and fulfilled a position in society was one thing- seeing artificial intelligence so close before one's eyes was another.

Finally, it was his turn. Heero gave his pass to the Admittance Desk officer; a disgruntled young man behind bulletproof glass. He swiped the equally presented identification card through a tiny machine that registered his number.

"Purpose of visit?"

"Data retrieval."

"Estimated time of visit?"

"Three hours."

The man leafed through the papers and was silent. A rustle of the papers and a quick movement told Heero the man had discovered the bribe money.

"Limited access." Two stamps were firmly placed on his admittance paper and his pass, and the young man handed over the identification card, papers and pass to him. Heero almost shook his head when he took the paperwork. Whoever still used old fashioned stamps was… well, old fashioned.

A buzzer sounded and he quickly dashed forward through the open gate, before it closed when the buzzer expired. He wrestled himself through the gate, almost cursing the metal bars that refused to open smoothly; he had to use some force to pry them further apart to pass.

"Nothing to declare?"

"Nothing," Heero confirmed, showing another official his paperwork, clearly marked with "Two hours admittance only". The elderly man studied the documents. Heero could almost feel the minutes ticking away.

"Limited access. Zones 5 and 7 only," the man repeated and placed again two stamps on the paper. Heero refrained from rolling his eyes. He had to went through five more officials before he finally reached the exit of the arrival hall; quite annoyed about the thirty minutes he'd already wasted. He quickly filed his over-stamped paperwork away and looked around.

This colony was the main colony for the L2 cluster. Everybody had to pass this Admittance Desk before continuing their visit or business on one of the colonies of this particular cluster. From his own data files, Heero knew that the government was corrupt, bureaucratic, lazy, and not trustworthy. Everything was for sale on L2- for the right price. The government had reluctantly accepted the imposed rules and regulations of the Second United Earth Sphere Alliance, established after two horrible wars. To demonstrate the "era of a new beginning", as the SUESA presented itself, Earth was renamed Second Earth, as to start with a clean slate. Heero had detailed files and records of those wars, but hadn't participated in them- he was built at least fifteen years after the last war. _Built. _

The exit doors slid open and the sun shone in his face; too strong and too bright to be natural. His eyes quickly adapted to the new light and he looked around if there were any hovercabs available. He didn't see anyone of the familiar yellow vehicles stationed outside; there were lots of other cars present, in varying types and models. Heero went to a large information billboard on the right; maybe he could figure out how to reach zone 7 by himself. He was slightly annoyed; the people here were rude and uncooperative; it had been hot and uncomfortable in the arrival hall and there were nowhere comfortable hovercabs in sight.

"Hey kid, wanna have a ride?"

He looked to the side. A large man stood in the door opening of his car; an old fashioned model with tires. "Where are you going to? I can get you to the next zone for only 10 credits."

"How much for zone 7?" Heero asked.

The man scratched his nearly bald head. "All access of limited access?"

"What do you mean?"

"Listen kid, do you have all access or limited access? If you have all access, I can take you to zone 7 in a much smoother way than if you only have limited access. That way, I can only go through zone 5. That's going to cost you."

"Why?"

The man snorted. "Zone 5 is a thief district, kid."

Heero was aware of his youthful appearance, but he didn't like being addressed as "kid". He quickly calculated in his head. "How much anyway? Limited access, I mean."

"Sixty credits. It's a lot more risk."

"I'm sorry, I have to pass."

The man snorted again, realizing he wouldn't cajole any money out of Heero. "Well, good luck finding a ride for less. No one likes to go through zone 5."

Heero sighed and turned his attention to the information board. He knew the address he had to visit by heart and computed the distance and the travel time. He didn't need to hurry - yet , but if he wanted to be back before his pass expired he had to hustle. There would undoubtedly be a large fine for anyone who failed to report back within time. He processed the information and turned around to find his way to zone 5.

At the gates of zone 5 he was checked again, and had to offer quickly some extra bribe money to pass without much difficulties. Heero didn't understand- how could people still be smuggling and doing illegal business when there was so much control exercised? He already knew the answer when trotting through the streets of zone 5; the officials were bought, just the same as he'd done. Money made the world go around, or, in this case, the colony- Heero couldn't really blame the inhabitants.

He passed the zone without any problems, without anyone approaching him. He didn't allow himself time enough to ponder about that, and singled out the address he'd been looking for.

The building didn't have anything remotely like a doorbell to ring, so he knocked a few times.

"Hold your horses! I'm coming, I'm coming."

The door slid open and an elderly man peeked around the corner, force field carefully in place. "Who's there?"

"I'm here for the data."

"Yeah, yeah, the data." The man barked a short laugh. "Don't you know how many people visit me for 'the data'? You have to be more specific, young man."

"The data for Quatre Winner," Heero grumbled, now more than annoyed. "Two disks, one formatted with.."

"Okay, okay, I already know what you want." The door closed again, leaving the force field softly humming. This was one man who certainly mistrusted everyone coming at his door. Heero merely shrugged. It wasn't his business. He was only doing this for a friend anyway, even though he didn't exactly know why- but it was given to him as some sort of a mission, and he obeyed mission orders.

"It's already been paid for." The elderly man suddenly appeared at the door again, almost startling Heero. He hadn't heard him arriving. "Two disks. Don't loose 'em, because I don't have anything new for him."

Heero was about to thank him, when the door was ruefully shut and the humming of the force field increased; it was turned up a few notches. He stared at the small, brown envelope in his left hand. That was all? His internal time-related system file informed him that he had at least forty minutes left, more than enough to walk back to the Departure Hall at his leisure. There was nothing more to do for him, so he turned around and started walking.

Loud noises got his attention; he went in the direction the screams and loud music came from. Judging from the stalls and the huge crowd, there was a market going on. With some time to spare, Heero sauntered over; he wasn't really curious, but maybe he could digest some valuable information about L2 and its inhabitants when observing them in their natural environment.

He immediately figured out that this was a black market, "allowed" by the government. They would take a portion of the profits made here. Nobody paid at this market with credits or any other plastic money- the deals were settled with heavy coins or traded goods. The system of food stamps, barter, and gambling was fully at work. The lower classes didn't dispose of credit cards or any other electronic paying system that Second Earth was known for; only registered citizens were applicable for electronic accounts. Heero shook his head and started to turn around to walk away; his time system warning him that he had only twenty minutes left. In a slowed-down string of movements, he saw the boy running towards him, his data processor already calculating the amount of impact. The young kid obviously didn't see him, frantically clutching a black bag to his chest, and Heero made the movement to step aside. To his astonishment, the boy reached him sooner than he'd calculated and slammed into him with such a force, that even his stronger-than-human body couldn't handle the impact and he was knocked off his feet.

"What in the world?"

"Out of my way, idiot!" The young boy looked up at him, two purplish-blue eyes radiating murder and irritation at him. "You're obstructing the road!"

"Get him! Hey you, stop him!"

Heero automatically followed the order and his hand rose.

"No way," the kid said and he smiled, a wonderful exuberant smile. The same second, he was gone and before Heero knew it, he was standing upright, legs moving on their own, and he was in pursuit. The perpetrator looked behind him, a tail of chestnut hair flying, laughing uproariously. Heero gave everything he had, willing himself to run harder when he noticed he couldn't keep up with the stranger. Finally, he turned into an alley, convinced he had the kid cornered- but all he saw, was a flash of a chestnut braid and the flutter of a purple scarf.

* * *


End file.
